[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: What you need to know about Watchmen
I hope they manage to pull this off. The trailer was perfect. --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/chi-watchmen- 0728_coverjul28,0,4606257\ .story chicagotribune.com What you need to know about 'Watchmen' By Glenn Jeffers Chicago Tribune reporter July 28, 2008 Who watches the Watchmen? Soon, we will. At least, that's what Warner Bros. and DC Comics are counting on when their next comic book adaptation, Watchmen, hits theaters in March. Many moviegoers got a sneak peek of the film before seeing The Dark Knight. Plainly defined, Watchmen is a 1986 graphic novel written by British writer Alan Moore (From Hell, V for Vendetta) and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. It is perhaps the most celebrated title in comicdom and has been showered with accolades including a Hugo Award, science fiction's highest honor. Time listed it as one of its top 100 English-language novels. Watchmen touched on many Reagan-era themes, including the Cold War and the nuclear arms race. But, ultimately, it moved comic books away from the kitschy, kids-only image of the '60s and '70s and proved the genre could handle more complex, adult drama. Originally released as a 12-issue limited series, Watchmen focuses on a group of retired heroes living in an alternative version of 1985 New York. When one of them, The Comedian, is murdered, the rest uncover a plot that could spark a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union. Here's what you need to know to enter the Watchmen world. The Characters Dr. Manhattan (a.k.a. Jon Osterman) Played by: Billy Crudup (Almost Famous, Big Fish) Trapped inside an intrinsic field generator during a test run, scientist Jon Osterman was ripped apart by the ensuing explosion. Somehow his consciousness survived, and he rebuilt himself as a glowing, blue-skinned being with a dislike for pants. The only super-powered hero in the Watchmen universe, Dr. Manhattan can do just about anything, from rearranging any kind of matter to teleportation. Interesting fact: Crudup will star in the upcoming film, Public Enemies, which was filmed around the Chicago area. He'll play J. Edgar Hoover, who allegedly also had issues with clothing. Rorschach (a.k.a. Walter Kovacs) Played by: Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children) Wearing a black-and-white mask that resembles a Rorschach test, this vigilante patrols the streets of New York. Spewing conspiracy theories and smelling like a trash bin, Rorschach is considered more of a brutal nuisance than a help. But he's the first to realize that The Comedian's death is more than just a run-of-the-mill homicide. Interesting fact: As in the graphic novel, the inkblot pattern on Rorschach's mask will change in the movie, thanks to motion-capture technology and visual effects. The Comedian (a.k.a. Edward Blake) Played by: Jeffrey Dean Morgan (P.S. I Love You) Amoral, misogynistic and a borderline sadist, The Comedian took pride in doling out punishment, which he served not only to criminals, but to protesters, women and some of his colleagues. It was all part of his little joke with the world. You know, the one about the heroes being as bad as the villains. Interesting fact: Morgan has made a career of playing characters who don't last through the third act, including transplant patient Denny Duquette on Grey's Anatomy, demon-fighter John Winchester on Supernatural, and Nancy Botwin's husband Judah on Weeds. Nite Owl I II (a.k.a. Hollis Mason and Dan Dreiberg) Played by: Stephen McHattie (A History of Violence) and Patrick Wilson (Little Children, The Alamo) The first man to wear the Nite Owl mantle was Hollis Mason, a police officer who led the Minuteman, a team of costumed heroes in the 1940s. After a successful career of crime-fighting, Mason retired and wrote an autobiography called Under The Hood. Soon, Dan Dreiberg, an aeronautics engineer and lifelong Nite Owl fan, contacted Mason and asked to carry on the name. Interesting fact: In the book, Mason and Dreiberg meet up every Saturday night to drink beer, listen to jazz albums and swap crime-fighting stories. Ozymandias (a.k.a. Adrian Veidt) Played by: Matthew Goode (The Lookout, Stealing Liberty) After spending years busting up crime syndicates, the self- proclaimed smartest man in the world hung up the tights, made his identity public and started a company that sold self-help books, diet drinks and Ozymandias action figures. Interesting fact: Watchmen director Zack Snyder drastically altered Ozymandias' costume for the movie, replacing the character's tunic and gold unitard with one that parodies the outfits in Joel Schumaker's much-maligned Batman Robin. Silk Spectre I II (a.k.a. Sally Jupiter and Laurel Jane Laurie Juspeczyk) Played by: Carla Gugino (Sin City, Spy Kids)
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: Steve Barnes on Hancock
But they were in a different position than the people he referenced. Will Smith has power. He is a major Hollywood player and he can use his clout to demand changes. Other stars of his caliber(and lower on the totem pole) do it so why can't he? As far as the Tennyson Hardwicke novels go, I ain't mad at them. Barnes and Due have never tried to hide the fact what those novels were meant to do. They wrote those books for money to put their kids through school, to allow them the freedom to do the work they love and to strengthen their profile in Hollywood and it worked. Their film projects are finally getting off the ground and we got a sequel to The Living Blood and a new novels in the Lion's Blood and Great Sky Woman series. And the books aren't bad. They are good summer mysteries/beach books. It's not Walter Mosley but they sure aren't thug lit or whatever moniker they are sticking on what passes for urban fiction this week. BTW I used those books as a gateway drug for a lot of folks that would have never picked up their other novels. So now folks I know that would never think to read anything remotely sci-fi or horror are reading stuff like Charisma, Blood Brothers, The Between and their other work. --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am somewhat amused by Steven Barnes' position. On one hand he denounces Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Sam L. Jackson for taking the money and running while on the other hand he and his lovely wife, Tananarive Due, make a naked money grab by collaborating with Blair Underwood on the blatantly commercial and barely literate Tennyson Hardwick novels Casanegra and In the Night of the Heat. ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ wrote: http://darkush.blogspot.com/2008/07/hancock-2008.html
[SciFiNoir Lit] More Steve Barnes on Hancock
Sunday, July 06, 2008 More on Hancock Back to Hancock, both because a reader asked it, it came up at a 4th of July party, and because I've decided that I actually am angry at Will Smith. I think it is reasonable to hold people who have his wealth and power responsible for their actions. How else can we control and guide our society other than expressing approval for the behaviors we approve of, and disapproval for those we don't? He didn't create the game board, but he's playing at such a level that there is no way that he, his children, or grand-children would be hurt if he decided to make nothing but small movies from here on out. #65440; But there is a balancing view: that Morgan Freeman's spiritual guides, Sam Jackson's emasculated bad-asses, Denzel Washington's noble neuters, Eddie Murphy's prosthetic camouflage and Smith's harmless Vunderkind personaes have set the stage for Barack Obama. And when (I think it was) Butterfly McQueen was asked why do you play maids? she replied Honey, If I hadn't played one, I would have been one. So I don't resent Halle Berry whoring herself to get an Oscar for Monster's Ball--there is a tremendous insult if one applies McQueen's comment to Berry's screen personage, but I'll let you work that one out for yourself. # Back to Hancock, those caveats aside. At the 4th of July party, a lady made a tremendously insightful observation that I will amplfy a bit. #65440; Iron Man, The Hulk, Fantastic Four Spider-Man Bat Man and so forth have a common thread running through them: the heroes are all brilliant scientists who are courageous if not also wealthy and sexy. In other words, they express the healthy self-image of white people, especially white males. #65440; Hancock, the first major film with a black superhero, is about a foul-mouthed, alcoholic bum who is occassionally useful but destructive. He is rescued by a white man who, in order to rehabilitate him, demands he go to prison (!) to serve his debt to society. Irresistably drawn to a white woman forever out of his reach, she is his Delilah, and he weakens if he touches her. They cannot have sex. He can't have sex at all (they cut a scene where, shades of Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex) he blows a woman through the side of his trailer with his super-sperm. On the other hand, the white woman, who has equal powers, appears to have no trouble at al having sex. Her involuntary vaginal contractions seem to have no real bizarre attributes. As Superman can have sex. Hancock cannot. #65440; We learn that he lost his powers because racists didn't like him holding hands with a white woman. #65440; At the end, he sacrifices everything so that the white couple can continue to screw happily ever. #65440; In other words, Hancock matches the most negative stereotypes imaginable that whites have of blacks. And the film was ruined when half-way through, I think someone realized the road they had accidentally traveled, and tried desperately to stop from saying what their subconscious was so eager to reveal. # Smith probably knew, just as he knew that Wild Wild West was off the rails. But it's hard to resist 20 million dollars. How many of you wouldn't have appeared in that movie for twenty million dollars? Be honest. But I can still be angry. # Casting the white woman? Just the toxic frosting on a rancid cake. The fact that she is South African is just an incredible coincidence, in a universe that has none. In all likelihood, not one person involved in the project consciously thought about this, but think about it: this movie will probably be Smith's biggest bomb in a decade. The subliminal message? DON'T TOUCH WHITE WOMEN. #65440; Now, most people will probably stop with the interracial aspect, without grasping that black men don't have sex with ANYONE. It isn't just white women. And sisters, I feel you on the discomfort you felt when she appeared. I hear about it on the radio, in conversations, in magazines: you don't want Denzel or Will boffing white women. But, and I say this with all affection, you do NOT complain as loudly when Halle screws Billy Bob Thornton or Pierce Brosnan, or Thandie Newton screws Tom Cruise. You remain curiously quiet. As black men weren't likely to complain much back when Jim Brown screwed Stella Stevens in Slaughter forty years ago. That's natural. Every group wants all the advantages, and every group wants all the advantages for themselves. I remember back in the 60's I heard black radical males saying it was better for black men to screw white women than for black women to screw white men. I thought they were full of shit, and said so. #65440; And I know black women now who say that it is better for black women to marry white men than for black men to marry white women. This is exactly, precisely, the kind of self-serving nonsense that allows any group to claim they have the right to control what others do using
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: Steve Barnes on Hancock
(Now Rave. You know that he is denouncing them for the WAY they took the money and ran, not for the mere taking and running. At least they way he, Due and Blair do it don't make you want to punch them out.) --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am somewhat amused by Steven Barnes' position. On one hand he denounces Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Sam L. Jackson for taking the money and running while on the other hand he and his lovely wife, Tananarive Due, make a naked money grab by collaborating with Blair Underwood on the blatantly commercial and barely literate Tennyson Hardwick novels Casanegra and In the Night of the Heat. ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ wrote: http://darkush.blogspot.com/2008/07/hancock-2008.html
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: Steve Barnes on Hancock
Doesn't make YOU want to punch them out. Have you read that trash? ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (Now Rave. You know that he is denouncing them for the WAY they took the money and ran, not for the mere taking and running. At least they way he, Due and Blair do it don't make you want to punch them out.) --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravenadal@ wrote: I am somewhat amused by Steven Barnes' position. On one hand he denounces Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Sam L. Jackson for taking the money and running while on the other hand he and his lovely wife, Tananarive Due, make a naked money grab by collaborating with Blair Underwood on the blatantly commercial and barely literate Tennyson Hardwick novels Casanegra and In the Night of the Heat. ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ wrote: http://darkush.blogspot.com/2008/07/hancock-2008.html
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: Steve Barnes on Hancock
I couldn't get through the first chapter of Casanegro. It read like Blair Underwood wrote it by himself. ~rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, B. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But they were in a different position than the people he referenced. Will Smith has power. He is a major Hollywood player and he can use his clout to demand changes. Other stars of his caliber(and lower on the totem pole) do it so why can't he? As far as the Tennyson Hardwicke novels go, I ain't mad at them. Barnes and Due have never tried to hide the fact what those novels were meant to do. They wrote those books for money to put their kids through school, to allow them the freedom to do the work they love and to strengthen their profile in Hollywood and it worked. Their film projects are finally getting off the ground and we got a sequel to The Living Blood and a new novels in the Lion's Blood and Great Sky Woman series. And the books aren't bad. They are good summer mysteries/beach books. It's not Walter Mosley but they sure aren't thug lit or whatever moniker they are sticking on what passes for urban fiction this week. BTW I used those books as a gateway drug for a lot of folks that would have never picked up their other novels. So now folks I know that would never think to read anything remotely sci-fi or horror are reading stuff like Charisma, Blood Brothers, The Between and their other work. --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravenadal@ wrote: I am somewhat amused by Steven Barnes' position. On one hand he denounces Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Sam L. Jackson for taking the money and running while on the other hand he and his lovely wife, Tananarive Due, make a naked money grab by collaborating with Blair Underwood on the blatantly commercial and barely literate Tennyson Hardwick novels Casanegra and In the Night of the Heat. ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ wrote: http://darkush.blogspot.com/2008/07/hancock-2008.html
Re: [SciFiNoir Lit] Re: OT: Justice for Private Levena Johnson
I was a recruiter...Your father had many reasons to be bitter toward the military, especially not allowing his daughter in...Though what they speak of here has nothing to do with recruitment, but the monsters they allow to roam freely in their ranks...You father did a good thing on that level... -See that guy who looks like a cross between Elvis and P-Funk? He is Johnny Ross.- From THE SIDE STREET CHRONICLES by C.W. Badie --- On Thu, 7/31/08, Chaeya [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: From: Chaeya [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [SciFiNoir Lit] Re: OT: Justice for Private Levena Johnson To: SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com Date: Thursday, July 31, 2008, 12:50 PM This has been going on for a long time, sad to say. I remember when I was in high school and I became enamored by the whole military propaganda and one of the recruiters visited my house with films, money for college and all that. My dad fought in the Korean war, so I though he would have been proud. My dad was openly hostile when he came home and saw the man there. He pretty much had him pack up his stuff and get out and he turned to me and told not to have any of those damn people in his house. When I asked him why, he just simply said that I wasn't going in no damn army. He was livid and to this day he never told me why he was so angry, and years later when I heard about all the sexual abuse, sexual harassment and cover ups like this, I understood. Chaeya --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@ yahoogroups. com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ ... wrote: This young woman was raped, murdered, and her body was burned... ...the Army called it suicide. Please take a moment to help the Johnsons achieve justice. We sent this email earlier this morning but many of you had problems with the Click Here button. It's been fixed in the email below, so if you had problems, please try again. - Dear Kenneth, LaVena Johnson was a 19 year old private in the Army, serving in Iraq, when she was raped, murdered, and her body was burned--by someone from her own military base. Despite overwhelming physical evidence, the Army called her death a suicide and has closed the case.1 For three years, LaVena's parents have been fighting for answers. At almost every turn, they've been met with closed doors or lies. They've appealed to Congress, the one body that can hold the military accountable. But, as in other cases where female soldiers have been raped and murdered and the Army has called it suicide, Congress has failed to act. Will you join Mr. and Mrs. Johnson in calling on Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Government Oversight Committee, to mount a real investigation into LaVena Johnson's death and the Army's cover-up2? Will you ask your friends and family to do the same? http://www.colorofc hange.org/ lavena/?id= 2248-605591 From the beginning, LaVena's death made no sense as a suicide. She was happy and had been talking with friends and family regularly3-- nothing indicated she could be suicidal. And when the Johnsons received her body, they noticed signs that she had been beaten.4 That was when they started asking questions. After two years of being denied answers and hearing explanations that made no sense, the Johnsons received a CD-ROM from someone on the inside. It contained pictures of the crime scene where LaVena died and an autopsy showing that she had suffered bruises, abrasions, a dislocated shoulder, broken teeth, and some type of sexual assault. Her body was partially burned; she had been doused in a flammable liquid, and someone had set her body on fire. A corrosive chemical had been poured in her genital area, perhaps to cover up evidence of rape.5 Still the Army sticks by their story. They refuse to explain the overwhelming physical evidence that LaVena was raped and murdered and continue to claim that she killed herself. For many Black youth, and working class young people of every race, the military is seen as an option for securing a better future. LaVena came from a deeply supportive family, and while the military wasn't her only option, she was attracted by its promise to help her pay for a college education and the opportunity to travel around the world. She also thought that by joining she could continue her lifelong commitment to serving other people in need. She made a decision to serve in the military, with all its risks, and expected respect and dignity in return. LaVena's death is part of a disturbing pattern of cases where female soldiers have been raped and killed, and where the military has hidden the truth and labeled the deaths suicides.6,7 In virtually all cases, Congress has been slow to investigate or hold the military accountable in any way. Unfortunately, most families simply don't have the resources, time, and psychological strength to push back. We can help the
[SciFiNoir Lit] Re: Steve Barnes on Hancock
Ah, hecky naw, man! Sex doesn't bother me (the only thing I want in this life is my life and more sex). Bad writing does. ~rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, B. Smith [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I've read it and I have to ask what bothered you about the book? Just the selling out in general or the sexcapades? Knowing Steven Barnes views on black men not getting to have sex in movies, I expected that there would be even more sex in the book. --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravenadal@ wrote: Doesn't make YOU want to punch them out. Have you read that trash? ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ wrote: (Now Rave. You know that he is denouncing them for the WAY they took the money and ran, not for the mere taking and running. At least they way he, Due and Blair do it don't make you want to punch them out.) --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, ravenadal ravenadal@ wrote: I am somewhat amused by Steven Barnes' position. On one hand he denounces Will Smith, Denzel Washington and Sam L. Jackson for taking the money and running while on the other hand he and his lovely wife, Tananarive Due, make a naked money grab by collaborating with Blair Underwood on the blatantly commercial and barely literate Tennyson Hardwick novels Casanegra and In the Night of the Heat. ~(no)rave! --- In SciFiNoir_Lit@yahoogroups.com, Chris Hayden belsidus2000@ wrote: http://darkush.blogspot.com/2008/07/hancock-2008.html
[SciFiNoir Lit] FW: Mohanraj interview: Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing
Original Message- From: Mary Anne Mohanraj Mohanraj interview: Adventures in Sci-Fi Publishing Some of you might enjoy this interview -- I talk about the Carl Brandon awards, how Strange Horizons got started, Clarion West experiences, grant money for writers, writing your identity, my current work, problems with the writing of inexperienced writers, etc. and so on. http://www.adventuresinscifipublishing.com/2008/07/aisfp-56/ - Mary Anne - Mary Anne Mohanraj - http://www.mamohanraj.com Director, Speculative Literature Foundation - http://www.speclit.org Board member, DesiLit - http://www.desilit.org
